27 May 2011

8 Tips for Writing Quality Blog Posts

So everyone around you has a blog, you constantly read in all the etsy forums and on every other website about the benefits of having a blog not only for you but for you business as well. There are so many people who appear to always know what to write and when to write it, and you wonder how on earth do they do it? How do they come up with so many interesting posts and even have plenty of comments?

There comes the day when you finally succumb to the idea, regardless of your prejudices or fears. You sign up for a blog, come up with the cutest name and there you are, all alone in front of the vast Internet empire with the empty space of your brand new blog. Feel inspired?

The truth is that people are not born with the knowledge. It takes hard work, a lot of research and consistency to become successful in any field of life. But hey, don't feel intimidated, everybody has started small! Take every life challenge one step at a time and you will be surprised when you turn back and see how far you have reached by simply following yourself!

Before I give you the 8 tips for writing quality blog posts, let me stress on the fact that people come to your blog to take something from you. Be aware of that and give it to them! Whatever it is - fun, information, tutorials, etc. And don't be afraid - the more you give, the more you will get in return!

Here are the 8 tips for writing quality blog posts:

1. Target

Determine your target audience. Which groups of people would be interested in your blog and what would their expectations be? Pick up an appropriate tone for your audience.

2. Read

Every successful writer is a very experienced reader. Read extensively blogs and websites with a similar theme to yours, learn from them and put to practice what you have learned.

3. Write

Share your own opinion, don't risk of being accused of plagiarism or violating copyright laws. There is no point to copy and paste text from another website. The problem is that not only the author will soon find that out but that once Google finds duplicated content, your page rank wouldn't have a chance to get high.

4. Link

If you find something interesting on the web which you would like to share, do so! But don't just post links! Talk about your experience, and your point of view.

5. Illustrate

Everyone loves eye candy! Strive to have at least one picture on every blog post. If you haven't taken appropriate pictures yourself, the web is full of photographs licensed under Creative Commons, i.e. free to use as long as you link back to their author.

6. Interact

Do not limit yourself to posting. If you want to encourage your readers to comment, do that yourself! Reply to their comments on your blog, visit their own blogs and take the time to comment as well, everybody loves feedback! Plus, out of that interaction you will get many ideas for new posts!

7. Schedule

If you know in advance when the holidays are, you can easily prepare appropriate posts not only about Christmas and Easter but for Mother's day or any other special international or national occasion.

8. Keep it simple

Your blog's appearance is even more important than its content. You can create brilliant content but if you don't present it in a pleasant way it will not be read. Try to have a clean and uncluttered blog template. The more widgets and gadgets you put, the longer it takes for your blog to load which can turn readers off. Try to have your posts reasonably long and with short paragraphs. In the age of information you need to get to the point quickly and sharply if you want to attract your readers' attention.

which means that you are free to copy, distribute and adapt my content provided you attribute it to me by linking back to the original post on my blog. Please note that some elements of posts (images, videos by other authors) may come with different licensing terms.